


To the Isle of Dread and Back Again

by AntigravityDevice



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friendship, Gen, Party Feels, Tabletop Gaming, post season one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-09 09:23:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8885506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AntigravityDevice/pseuds/AntigravityDevice
Summary: They thought it was over when they defeated the Demogorgon. Then the first gate opened, and they found out they were wrong. But maybe the greatest D & D adventure was the friends they made along the way.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [templeandarche](https://archiveofourown.org/users/templeandarche/gifts).



> "One of the more dangerous times for the adventurer is the period directly following the 'end' of an adventure. The character has relaxed, and is looking forward to rest, recuperation, and remuneration (for treasure items found). He is off guard, and his friends have spread throughout the village, town, or castle to attend to their private concerns. This is the time when secret foes and hidden dangers encountered during the adventure may manifest themselves."
> 
> -Lew Pulsipher, Dragon Magazine, November 1983

_Is everyone on the map? Dustin, put yourself on the Specularum harbor with the others so we can start. Your journey begins on a misty spring day. The weather's mild in the Duchy of Karameikos, but the sea wind has a bite that portends gales and hurricanes. The ship you were promised awaits you, but so do the many dangers. There are lurking reefs, shifty ocean currents and numerous sea monster encounters between you and the legendary Isle of Dread. Will you have the courage to set a-sail?_

There had never been so many snacks in the basement, not even when they'd played through their latest campaign, a ten-hour campaign that had left Mike's hand sore from scribbling dungeons and throwing dice. Christmas leftovers were kind of a given, but this year there seemed to be suspiciously many extra cakes and peppermint sticks and gingerbread cookies. His mother claimed several times she'd forgotten they already had some, but Mike saw the little indulgent smile that meant it wasn't an accident. It was like a pact their parents had made: the boys got all the snacks and basement time they thought to ask for. It was a bit cloying and weird, but nice at the same time. Especially because Will was there with them.

Mike offered him the last bit of peppermint bark. Will took it but curled back around his Christmas present book, not wanting to talk. He had his new, shapeless sweater on. Dustin had already given him the condolences from all of them because it was self-made and embarrassing and Will was obligated by rules of Christmas to wear it for at least a couple of days. Mike suspected Will secretly liked the sweater a little, though. It was warm in the basement and he hadn't taken it off.

Mike's pencil made another constellation of frustrated dots on the paper. _Tap. Tap. Tap._ He was supposed to be planning their next D  & D adventure but he couldn't get into it. The others had wanted something else, something _more_ , so he wanted this to be special somehow. His thoughts kept straying away, and he kept munching on chocolate instead of writing. Dustin's mom made the best peppermint bark in the world. It had just the right amount of crunch without making your teeth hurt.

He'd wanted El to get to taste it. Taste something that was unique and special. All she'd eaten while she'd stayed in their basement was boring leftover crap.

"I don't know why dwarves couldn't use pole arms," Lucas insisted. "I mean, come on, they'd be dwarf-sized pole arms, _obviously_. They probably cost extra gold because they're unique weapons but I got those components I can sell. I could totally afford it."

"Why you gotta have a halberd so bad?" Dustin asked, exasperated, and threw down his Dragon magazine. He and Lucas were going through a pile of them. He had gingerbread crumbs all over his hoodie. Mike was sure there were crumbs between every page Dustin had actually read. He usually skipped to the comic strips. "It's like plus one damage to what your enchanted battleaxe does. Big deal."

"Because," Lucas explained slowly, like Dustin was stupid, and snatched a gingerbread cookie. "It's a halberd. It's a special weapon and it's super cool. You can't impale bugbears to the wall with an axe." He took apart the cookie, snapping off its legs one by one.

_Ten hit points. Twenty hit points. Thirty hit points. Unconscious. Dead._

"You should save those rare components for my high-level spells," Will suddenly spoke up from his armchair. He didn't look up from his book. He sounded like Mike's dad with his newspaper in the morning.

The rest of them glanced at each other. Mike felt bad about it immediately. He didn't like doing anything behind Will's back. They couldn't help noticing, though. Will was mostly normal, mostly okay, but sometimes he could sound like he wasn't quite there. And he _was_ , that's what was so weird about it. He was back, he was with them, and even their parents seemed not to worry about it any more. Well, most of them.

"They're for, like, maximum high level spells," Lucas said, but quietly, not wanting to argue.

"You want to change something about your wizard for the next campaign, Will?" Dustin asked.

Will lowered the book and shook his head. "Not really. But when I level up, you're gonna wish I had those rare spell components." He reached out his hand. "Throw me a cookie."

Dustin rummaged around in the jar. "We're almost out." He found one more and tossed it across the room to Will's reading nook. "It hasn't got a head."

"That's okay," Will said, and smiled, and his eyes looked bright. He was with them again.

"It's been decapitated by a halberd-wielding dwarf warrior on a mighty steed!" Lucas exclaimed, doing an ominous TV announcer voice.

"Okay, dwarves so don't use mounts!"

"Tolkien says they do! Thorin's company all had ponies!"

Dustin rolled his eyes. "This is Dungeons and Dragons dwarves, it's totally different. Right, Mike?"

"I could make a house rule about it," Mike ventured, but he was cut off by the sharp ringing of the phone upstairs.

A short while later, his mom opened the door and came down the stairs. "Will? Joyce is on the phone."

Will jumped up. "What time is it?"

"It's only a little past seven," Mike's mom said. She had that indulgent smile on her face again as she watched Will run up the stairs and past her to get to the phone in the hall. "Everything okay here?"

"Yeah, mom, everything's fine," Mike told her.

She took the empty peppermint bark plate and left them alone. It was like magic. No questions, just endless snacks and hanging out time. It couldn't last forever.

Mike heard mumbling from the hall that had to be Will talking on the phone. For reasons he couldn't quite explain, he left his notes and crawled quietly up the stairs until he could hear him better.

"Yeah, mom, they're all here. Dustin brought chocolate, too, but we've almost finished it anyway." Will paused, listening to Joyce. "Yes, I'm having fun. I'm having fun, mom. I promise. I'll be home by nine. Mrs. Henderson said she'd pick us up." Another pause. Will shuffled in place. "No-- No, mom, I don't even have my bike. I'm not going to go anywhere alone." More shuffling. "Okay, mom. You, too. Bye."

Will's mom was getting better about Will being over at Mike's. The phone calls had become shorter and Will didn't have to call her every other minute any more. For some reason she had eased up when Will had stayed overnight just before Christmas. Joyce was okay with sleepovers. She just didn't like Will to come home after dark.

Mike made way for Will when he returned but lingered on the stairs. He looked down at his friends, scattered across the basement among the snacks and books. Lucas was showing Dustin the cool art in the "Dwarves in Space" article. Dustin spread cookie crumbs all over his magazine too as he pointed at the armor details and argued about the incongruity of melee fighting on a spaceship. Just as well they only played D & D; the arguments about physics in a sci-fi setting would be insane. They could barely agree about dwarves and pole arms. It was okay, though. Arguing wasn't fighting.

He had the best friends anyone could hope for. It was greedy to want more, to wish that--

"Can I take this, Mike?" Will asked, drawing his attention to the part of the room he tried to avoid. Will was holding El's blanket in his hand. "Mike? Can I take this? I'm really cold."

He probably didn't know it was El's blanket. He had never even seen her, spoken with her. It still felt like an insult.

"Yeah, of course," Mike said, because what else could he say?

He was being greedy. He was being stupid. Everything was fine. Just the way it had always been. It was like there hadn't even been a Demogorgon, and Upside Down, and dangerous bad government people in white vans.

It was like El had never been there at all.

 

*

Mrs. Henderson was precisely on time, as always. Mike waved goodnight to his friends and retreated back to the basement to have a few minutes to himself before his mom could send him to brush his teeth.

He picked up his notes, or what should have been notes and were just scribbles instead. He'd started to draw a dragon before he realized he wasn't as good as Will and it looked more like a cow. He sighed and went to pick up El's blanket in order to fix up her little hideaway. He'd stopped keeping Eggos there because they just went bad, but he couldn't take the whole thing down.

A cold draft crawled up his spine when he gathered the blanket from where Will had left it, draped over the back of the armchair. Weird. The rest of the basement was warm, the air still stale after so many people had been breathing it for hours. Mike pushed the chair aside, thinking there might be a hole in the wall somewhere. Not that his dad could do anything about it, he was useless when it came to fixing stuff, but maybe he'd call someone...

At first he thought it was a mouse hole. It was at floor level, a little wider at the bottom. It looked like a normal, mouse-sized hole in the wall. But when Mike reached down, he felt an icy current from it. His hand brushed at the side of the opening. It felt spongy and sticky, more like flesh than anything that should be in a wall. He turned his hand around. It was covered in something like wet spiderwebs. What kind of a spider...?

A terrible possibility occurred to him, and he quickly pulled away and started rummaging around the basement, throwing magazines and cookie jars aside.

"Mike, bed time," his mom called from the top of the stairs.

"In a minute!" he yelled back, annoyed.

There it was, underneath the D & D folders on the table: his compass. He made sure his mom had left before he crawled behind the armchair and held the compass out towards the hole in the wall.

The needle spun slowly but inevitably towards it.

"No way," Mike gasped. "No. No no no. Not any more."

He looked around. There were a few spare shelves underneath the stairs that he could nail to cover the hole. His parents would hear if he started hammering, though. He settled for turning over the gaming table and pushing it to the wall, and then dragging the heavy armchair to keep it there. If any monsters wanted to come through, they'd have to work at it, at least.

It was a small tear in time and space. Maybe they'd be small monsters. Maybe he'd just imagined it. But it had looked... the compass needle had turned exactly like before--

"Mike," his mom called again.

"Coming!" Mike ran up to her before she could notice what he'd done and ask questions about it.

In the privacy of his room he tried to call Lucas on the walkie-talkie, but got no answer. It was late. Lucas was probably fast asleep. He lay down, too anxious to let go of the walkie-talkie. If his stomach hadn't been so full of chocolate it would've turned into a million knots. He couldn't stay awake all night, though; eventually he nodded off, curled up under the blankets.

In the morning he jumped up and ran to the basement in his pyjamas, clutching the walkie-talkie to his chest in case he needed to alert the others.

"Well, good morning to you, too," his dad called from the living room, but Mike didn't stop.

The basement looked the same as he'd left it. He pushed the chair and the table out of the way, preparing himself for small monsters, big monsters, anything.

The hole had closed up. The wall was just a wall. When he ran his fingers over it he thought he could catch a residual chill, but there was no give, no sign of breakage.

The walkie-talkie coughed out some static noise. "Mike, you awake? Pick up if you're there. Over."

"Yeah," he answered Lucas. His heart was beating loudly in his ears. "I'm here."

"You coming to Dustin's play next weekend? Over."

Mike kept running his hand over the place where the hole had been. Nothing. "Of course. Over."

"He says he needs to know by Monday how many seats to reserve. He meant to tell you yesterday but he forgot. Over."

"Okay," Mike said, and got up, looking around helplessly.

Had he really imagined it? Why would he imagine something so pointless and baffling?

"All right, see you on Monday. Math. Yay. Over," Lucas said.

Mike let the walkie-talkie fall silent in his hand.

His mom opened the basement door and leaned against the frame. "Couldn't wait to get back here, huh? You want to join us for breakfast? Bacon and pancakes."

It sounded good. Mike turned to give her his best everything-is-okay smile. It made him feel a little better, too. "Coming, Mom."


	2. Chapter 2

_Just a second. I can't find the wilderness rules... Who's got the Expert rule book? Thanks. Okay, now I just have to roll for ocean encounters... Oh, look at that. Your journey will be far from uneventful, even after making it through the treacherous reefs south of Dawa. You steer your ship confidently towards the Isle on the horizon, but you've not reached the shore yet. Let me just check the table to see what kind of a monster rises out of the waves to greet you..._

 

"You look like a goblin," Lucas said, arms crossed over his chest.

"Shut up. I'm a forest imp." Dustin shifted self-consciously. It was obvious he liked his costume, otherwise he wouldn't already be in it. "It's a really small part. I have like, three lines. But I have to sing."

They were way early. The play wouldn't start for an hour. The volunteers and stage hands were still carrying chairs into the hall and preparing the stage. Will's brother had dropped them off at the community center and then disappeared somewhere. Will had said something about him getting film developed, but Mike hadn't really been listening. They bought overpriced candy from the high schoolers' stand that wasn't officially open yet, and found Dustin. He wasn't nearly as nervous as Mike would've been. He was one of the youngest people in the play; most were high schoolers, or those adults who were always in these charity things.

Lucas looked around them, at the people rushing to get everything finished. "You're nuts. I wouldn't sign up for this in a million years. No way."

"Nah, it's cool. At least it's a New Year's play and not a Christmas play." Dustin socked Lucas in the arm and smiled. "You guys wanna see the backstage? There's tons of awesome stuff in there. Stuff from way back, like twenty years ago."

Mike exchanged glances with Will, who had stuffed his mouth full of chewing gum. "Yeah, okay."

They were led behind the stage, past three high school juniors rehearsing their lines. The guy who worked in the school cafeteria when the usual lunch lady was sick squeezed past them, carrying a tall cardboard tree. The hallway was narrow and full of theater stuff; ropes, big and small props, a box full of fake snow, posters of previous plays, wigs and costumes in neat rows. It was dark and kind of mysterious. It was a place of in-betweens.

Dustin was showing off a bit, playing tour guide, but Mike didn't mind. "The dressing room's over there, and this way's the prop rooms. The real old stuff's in the smaller one. They never lock it."

When he got the door open he gave them all a close look at two high schoolers dressed up as forest fairies kissing between the shelves. Their hands were all over each other's costumes. The two jumped apart. Everybody jumped.

"Oh God!"

"Eww!"

"Sorry!"

"Henderson? What the hell!" The girl was touching her green face paint, smudging it worse. "What are you doing here?"

"Mr. MacReady sent me to get more duct tape," Dustin said too quickly. He could look her in the eye when he said it, though.

She rolled her eyes and grabbed the other fairy by his sleeve to drag him away. His eyes were as big as saucers. "Come on."

Lucas looked after them with an expression of startled disgust. "They gotta do that everywhere?"

"You're not supposed to be here, either," Dustin pointed out. "Now check this shit out. Mr. MacReady said most of these props were here when he was still in high school. They put all the new props in the other room."

Mike pulled the door closed behind them. The solitary light bulb didn't quite reach over the high shelves, leaving the corners of the room dark. There were lots of neat old boxes marked in longhand, and the four of them were soon wandering around looking through the old props. Will found a pirate hat covered in dust, its feather resembling a fish bone. It was too big for him.

Mike was going through a box marked "ALICE MAGIC POTIONS" -- it was, disappointingly, just a collection of condiment and perfume bottles, washed and painted with bright colors—when Lucas said "Guys" in a quiet voice. It sounded like a warning instead of an invitation to come check out something cool.

"Guys," he repeated, louder.

"What?" Dustin turned immediately to the door, which remained closed. His imp costume had gotten dusty.

Lucas stepped around the shelf and gestured for him to come closer. His gaze was fixed on one of the corners of the room. Will put away the pirate hat and came over, and Mike followed close behind.

When it wasn't mouse hole-sized, it looked creepier, more obviously wrong and out of place. The hole started from the floor, but that was the only side that looked even; its edges dripped with something that was too pale and thick to be blood, like it had been violently ripped into the world. It was almost as tall as them, and twice as wide. A bone-shivering chill emanated from its depths. Mike couldn't feel it until he was standing right in front of the opening, and then couldn't shake it.

"Holy. Shit," Lucas said, enunciating slowly.

Will stood very still. His throat was moving.

"You think...? No, it can't be," Dustin insisted, even though his eyes were panic-wide, too. "T-tears in time and space are supposed to take crazy amounts of energy to form, that's what Mr. Clarke said! They don't just open on their own without anyone noticing!"

Lucas pointed at the hole in the wall, then snatched his hand back, not wanting to get it too close. "You're seeing it, right? We're all seeing it! Something's come through from the, from the Upside Down! What if it's another monster?"

Mike knew he had to tell the others now. The tear in time and space, the gate to the Upside Down, it wasn't just in his head. And it had opened in _his house_.

"I saw one of them before," Lucas said, stunning Mike into confused silence. His hands had drawn into tight fists. "In my... in Mom's study, by the bookshelf. It wasn't as big as this one. But it was the same."

"And you didn't tell us?" Dustin sounded hurt.

"Yeah, because it had closed by then!" Lucas snapped. "I only noticed it after you guys had left! I went outside to talk to my dad, and when I came back it was gone!"

"When did you see it?"

"Last week. When you all came over to see Mum's new Apple IIe. I threw a pen into it." Lucas steeled his jaw and looked at them with a steady, defensive glare.

Mike took a deep breath. "I've seen one, too. In my house. It disappeared, just like the one in your house did."

"They've been opening all over the place?" Dustin couldn't decide what to do with his hands, waving them wildly. "You didn't tell _anyone_ about it?"

Mike shook his head, and Lucas gave a guilty shrug. They didn't have to say it: their parents would've gone into full-on panic mode. No more endless snacks and game time. No more sleepovers. Their next D & D campaign would be played under their parents' noses. Their bikes would be confiscated.

Will looked uneasily at the hole in the world. He was as quiet as Dustin was loud. "I... don't think this one is going to close on its own. It's so big."

A faint, raspy groan echoed from somewhere deep beyond the gate. It didn't sound like any animal Mike knew. They all held their breaths.

"This is not good," Dustin mumbled, biting his lip. "It's like something's stalking us. It's like... like it _follows_ us."

The Demogorgon was gone, Mike reminded himself. They'd seen it break apart. This had to be something new. He felt curiosity pool in the pit of his stomach: a stupid, sickly urge.

"I'm going to look through," he announced, glad that his voice didn't waver.

"Mike!" Lucas shook his head, eyes pleading him to drop the idea.

"Just a quick look, and then I come back. Give me some of that rope over there."

Dustin unwound the coils of old rope. It was dusty after sitting on the shelf for ages but it held fine. Will had guessed what Mike was thinking, and looped the rope around his middle, tying it securely.

"You sure you want to do this?" he asked in a quiet voice.

Mike nodded, pretending that he was absolutely sure of himself. "You guys can pull me back if something happens. I won't go far. Just enough to take a peek. Nancy said it was a short crawl, when she did it."

"Don't make any noise," Will said. His voice had thinned into a whisper.

It got colder with every step Mike took towards the uneven opening in the prop room wall. Something moved the cobweb-like shreds of the stuff that made up its walls; a faint breeze, blowing from within. He had to bend down in order to fit in and he could still feel something catching onto his hair. There was no way to avoid touching the oozing walls, it seemed. Mike drew his jacket closed and pulled his hands into his sleeves.

"We've got you, Mike," Lucas called. He already sounded like he was far behind him.

Mike walked inside, and through, and beyond. It was a shorter distance than he thought. His breath misted in the air.

Soon he could see light ahead, a pale blue light. A few steps and he had reached it; it came not from a light bulb but from the glowing walls of the room he had just left. He glanced over his shoulder, disoriented. He hadn't turned around, he was sure he hadn't, but he was staring at a decayed version of the same prop room where he had left his friends. The light made everything look colorless and drab. The place looked long abandoned, not years but centuries ago. Vines had grown over the shelves; many of the boxes on them were empty. The floor was covered in a thin layer of some kind of black slime. When Mike moved his foot, his shoe print lingered on the shiny surface.

There was a set of footprints coming from the door on the other side of the room. Small ones, like a kid had left them. They circled one of the shelves and went back out again. The door had been left open.

The rope around Mike's middle drew tight without warning, almost making him lose his footing on the slimy floor. He looked over his shoulder. He could make out nothing but the opening he'd come through; it looked just as uninviting from this side. The rope vanished into darkness. Another tug: although he couldn't see them, somewhere on the other side, his friends wanted him back.

Mike turned to go back, but a spot of color in the room caught his eye. Leaning against the shelf on the floor right next to the footprints was a small, yellow cardboard box. Mike recognized it, although he couldn't read the writing from where he was standing: _Eggos_. He lunged forward and grabbed the empty box. The rope dug into him painfully, refusing to give, and he stumbled back the way he came, blindly hurrying through. He clutched the box to his stomach with both hands.

Lucas and Will caught him when he practically fell back into the right prop room. It was dizzying to end up right where he left. They were telling him something, something important it seemed, but for a moment Mike couldn't hear a thing. He blinked rapidly; everything was suddenly so colorful and _lifelike_ that it almost hurt to look at it.

Someone was knocking on the door. The closed door.

"Dustin, are you done? Fifteen minutes! And we still have to get your face painted!"

"Um, I haven't got my costume on yet! Just a second!" Dustin dropped the rope and joined Lucas and Will in crowding Mike.

"Mike! What did you see?" Will asked anxiously. He sounded like he'd asked it a few times already.

Mike felt the sharp corners of the empty box in his hands. It was real. He'd brought it through. "It's El," he managed to say. "It was her."

"You saw El?" Lucas had a hold on his shoulder like he didn't believe Mike could stay up on his own. Mike wasn't sure he could, either.

He pushed the box into Lucas's free hand. "I _know_ it was her. It's El, don't you get it? She's alive! She's trying to get through to us!"

The knocking became louder and more insistent. "Dustin!"

Mike crumbled down onto the floor, his knees giving out. His jacket was covered in weird cobweb-like stuff. His mom would kill him.

"We have to go there and find her," he told the others, looking from one face to the next. Lucas's was blank with disbelief, Dustin's bewildered. Will frowned in worry. "She's trying to get to us. Maybe she needs us. We have to find her."


	3. Chapter 3

_I know your ship took weather damage. I wrote it down somewhere... Here it is. I'm afraid the sea serpent's thrashing tail and cruel claws took apart the already damaged hull. You barely have the time to notice you're taking on water before you're already neck-deep in it. Saving throws from all of you, and those of you with armor on, that's with a -2 penalty! Okay, good. You cling to planks and barrels as you try your best to swim towards the shore. Your eyes sting from the salty sea water, but you're close enough to reach your destination, even without the boat. Are those... moving figures you can make out on the shore? It looks like you might be expected. Is there any soda left?_

 

The wait just about drove Mike crazy, but he had to admit the following weekend was the perfect opportunity: his parents were out of town to visit his uncle who wasn't well, and Lucas's parents had a Date Night on Saturday. Dustin's parents tended to be okay with sleepovers, as long as it was over at Mike's house, which they saw as safe somehow. Well, it felt safer than Will's did, Mike had to admit. At least the Demogorgon had never been to his house.

The worst part of the plan was talking Will's mom into it. Will had to promise he'd call, and not go out into the woods, and not go anywhere alone, and even though only part of it was a lie Mike could tell it hurt him to lie to her. It would've hurt her worse to know the truth. He told Will that, and Will just nodded, eyes clouded, gnawing his lip red.

Mike figured that Nancy would be the easiest part. She didn't want to go visit Uncle Johnny anyway, and Mike immediately joined forces with her, lying about a super interesting D & D adventure module they wanted to try out and telling his mom they'd be all right on their own. He even kissed Nancy's butt and told Mom she'd do a great job looking after the house.

The next time Nancy talked to Steve on the phone, Mike eavesdropped on the call downstairs. They were planning a party, of course. After that, he only had to casually mention to Nancy that he wouldn't tell their parents she was planning to spend the weekend at Steve's for the very reasonable price of a pizza and an uninterrupted gaming night.

Nancy crossed her arms. "Mom would freak if she knew I was leaving you alone."

"Exactly. So we're not gonna tell her."

"Why are you so desperate to get me out of the house?" Nancy narrowed her eyes. She was a little too smart for a big sister. "You play that game in the basement. We could be having an orgy upstairs and you wouldn't notice."

"Gross," Mike said, to buy himself some time. He hadn't planned on Nancy guessing that something was going on. Maybe she was still a bit jumpy, too, expecting weird things to happen.

"So what's going on? You promised, Mike. No more secrets."

Mike bit the inside of his cheek. They'd sworn not to tell anyone. But Nancy as good as knew already, and he'd promised her first. "Okay, don't freak. We found a gate. A small one. Like the one in the woods you told us about." He took a deep breath. This plan seemed dumber when he was telling it to someone else. "And... and El opened it. I think she did. She has psychic powers, so she totally could. So. So we're going through to find her."

Nancy's expression was so kind that it hurt somehow. "Mike," she said softly, "she's gone. You're not going to find her."

"El's not dead! I saw her footprints! She's not dead!" Mike rarely yelled at her, but he couldn't help himself. He could feel his face growing hot with embarrassment. "Look, you don't have to do anything. Okay? Just cover for us if Will's mom calls or something. We're not going to be gone for long. The monster's dead. It's totally safe."

"Yeah, right."

"Okay, but it's not as dangerous as before. And we're going to be super careful. We have a plan."

Nancy didn't demand to know what the plan was. That was kind of cool of her. Maybe that trust would hold. She pursed her lips, considering it. "Where's the... gate?"

"The other side of town. The prop room in the community center. Dustin's got the keys." Mike shifted his weight anxiously from one foot to the other. "Come onnn, Nancy. Cover for us. Please."

She gave him a stern look, locking him in place. "Okay. One night. If you're not back by morning, I'm telling Steve and Jonathan and we're coming in after you."

"Thanks," Mike said with a relieved sigh. It did feel pretty nice to have someone watching their backs. "And... and just in case more of those gates open, um..." He had to trust her if he wanted her to trust him. "Be prepared. Like... like before. You're like a gatekeeper. A guard of the Citadel. Holding the forces of Mordor at bay."

Nancy smiled, that irritating I'm-five-years-older-than-you smirk of hers. "I thought I was an elf princess."

"That was Dustin who came up with that. He's just mad about elves." Mike rolled his eyes.

She hugged him, then, like she hadn't hugged him for ages. Not since he was little. "Be careful, Mike," she told him, and wouldn't look him in the face any more. She went into her room, closing the door behind her.

When Mike was halfway down the stairs, he heard music drifting softly from her room. It sounded like one of Will's tapes.

 

*

"And we're sure it's not just someone pretending to be El?"

Mike and Lucas looked up from the backpack, then at each other, hands frozen around snacks. Dustin squirmed, winding the cord of his binoculars around his fingers, but didn't take his words back.

"Someone? Someone who?" Mike demanded. "It's the Upside Down. No one lives there."

"Except monsters," Lucas said out under his breath.

"It's dead, all right? The Demogorgon's dead." Mike shot him a sharp look. It wasn't like Lucas to be a scaredy-cat. They didn't need to dwell on this, they needed to get there, soon. El was in the Upside Down on her own.

Will was already packed. He sat on the couch wrapped up in woolly clothes and held his school bag between his feet like he was afraid someone would snatch it. "There's probably others, though. Other... creatures. Somewhere. Wandering monster encounters."

"Look, stay focused, okay?" Mike tucked the packet of trail mix into the backpack pocket. "We're not going any further than we need to. We'll look for signs of El, get to her, and rescue her. This is a retrieval operation. We'll be quick and quiet, and we'll..."

He had to pause to catch his breath, feeling strangely winded. The others were looking at him with a mixture of expectation and apprehension. He knew the look well. They were standing at the gateway to a castle, the mouth of a cave, the door to a lair. They were hoping and dreading to see what he had in store for them next.

"We'll be okay," Mike said quietly, unable to give them anything more than that.

"Yeah," Dustin said and nodded, "sure. We're prepared." He pulled on his cap.

Will took the binoculars from Dustin and pushed them into the backpack, pulling the strings tight to close it. "Mom said it was quiet when they found me. She didn't see anything moving."

He swallowed, and looked down at his feet like he was trying not to be sick, kind of spoiling the attempt to calm anyone's nerves.

Mike threw the backpack on and tried not to let it show how heavy it was. "Everybody packed? Snacks? Weapons? Potions? Does anyone have any matches, a lighter? Something?"

"Yeah, we've only got two flash lights." Will took a black lighter from his pocket to show it to them. It had "JD" scratched on it. "I got this from Jonathan."

"Good!" Mike nodded to him. Will thought of everything. "Ready?"

"Ready," Lucas said and pursed his lips together in the grim manner of someone heading for war.

 

*

Adults could spot their bikes from a mile away, so they decided to leave them and go on foot. They didn't dare draw attention by switching on their flash lights., so they tripped constantly on frozen dirt and branches. Mike didn't want to think about how much worse it might be when they were on the other side. He tried to remember all the places El had been. She wasn't at any of their houses, or she could've just stepped through and talked to them. She wasn't at Castle Byers, because Will said it wasn't there any more. She wouldn't be hiding at school. That was where she'd lain in a pool and seen horrible things, where the bad people had caught up with them, where she had killed the Demogorgon and disappeared.

And also where there was endless chocolate pudding, and Will's mom being nice, and Mike asking El to the Snow Ball and, and.

It had really happened, hadn't it? The Demogorgon being real was easier to believe than actually having told a girl you liked her.

He took a deep breath to steady himself. Lucas had been a few steps ahead, leading the way along the back wall of the old community center, but he'd stopped to look around.

"Almost there," Dustin said when he caught up. He was out of breath, sweating in his warm clothes. Mike was starting to sweat, too. "The back door leads to the dressing room. The backstage's right through there."

He unlocked the door and it opened with with a creak. It was dark inside, which was good; it meant no one else was around. They switched on their flash lights. to find the prop room. The backstage had seemed magical before, but it was just eerie at night with no one there, and Mike tried not to let his eyes wander.

He wasn't sure if he was relieved or disappointed when they crept into the old prop room and found that the gate was still there. It hadn't shrunk. If anything, it seemed taller at night. It was still frayed around the edges, like the piece of cloth Mr. Clarke had spilled corrosive agent on in class, and it seemed to sink in impossibly far, a black hole sucking time and light into its depths. Something smelled long burned.

Dustin had taken out the big ball of orange cord, confiscated from his dad, and was unwinding it to get it around the nearest shelf. Their rope of breadcrumbs. Lucas was the best at knots, so he went to help him.

Mike noticed Will was standing right in front of the gate again, just staring at it. His empty expression upset him, but he tried not to show it.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to," Mike promised, so low that the others couldn't hear, and meant it. The only reason no one had said it yet was that it went without saying.

Will turned to him and his face seemed to melt into a smile, becoming normal again. "I'm coming with you, Mike. You need a magic user."

Mike hoped his smile was reassuring instead of awkward. "Yeah. No splitting the party. That's the rule, right?"

"Damn straight," Lucas mumbled.


	4. Chapter 4

_Your guide takes you further inland, towards the tar pits the village zombie master spoke about. There's a foul stench in the air, and finally the guide hides behind a large volcanic rock. "I will take you no further," she says. "Not even the tar collectors go beyond this place. This land belongs to the great Dimetrodon, whom the lizard-men worship as their terrible god of death! They sacrifice troglodytes to it in their vile rites. You mustn't go near its lair! They say it's filled with magical treasure, but the Dimetrodon guards it with his life. Stay hidden -- the undead pterodactyls flying over the Isle are servants of the Sorcerer. I must leave you now and return to Tanaroa. Farewell, brave adventurers! Break the Sorcerer's curse, and free our island from his tyranny!" What? No, Dustin, you can't make a Seduce roll to get her to guide you further. I know you've got the highest Charisma score! Don't be stupid. Give me a Perception check, all of you._

Mike's breath condensed into the thick scarf when he pulled it up to cover his mouth and nose, and he smelled wet wool, felt it prickling his lips softly.

"Remember, two long tugs on the rope and we'll pull you back," Dustin said. "Short, long, short, and we'll be right behind you."

Mike nodded to him and the others, and took the first step in.

This time, he tried to pay attention to what it was actually like, crossing over to another dimension. At first it was almost normal, despite the oozing walls: cold, and echoing and claustrophobic at the same time. But then it went on, and Mike's shoes started sticking to the ground, and his scarf plastered over his face with damp. His fingers mechanically unwound the orange cord.

The other prop room was the same as he'd left it. The footprints had faded from the floor, but the door was still open. His flashlight blended in perfectly with the weird blue light. It was quiet, so Mike kept on unwinding the cord and stepped into the hallway. Backstage. It was spooky at night, no matter what dimension.

Something rustled above him, and he pointed his flashlight up just in time to see scampering movement among the coiled ropes. A bat? It had been small, though. He caught his breath, made himself look ahead, and continued on.

Once he reached the stage, he had gathered enough courage to call out.

"El? Eleven? Are you here? It's me! It's Mike!"

No one answered him, not even the bat creature. The hall loomed dark and vast ahead of him. It was impossible to make out the opposite wall. In the faint, bluish light, coming from nowhere in particular, the surface of the stage was shining with either still water or thin ice. The curtain hung in tatters above. The walls were overgrown with thick vines and roots as far as he could see. Nothing moved.

The air was thick with something that looked like pollen. Mike had seen Will's dog destroy a sofa cushion once, really go for it, shake it around until the white insides had flown all over. This was like that, but slower, much slower. And quiet.

Mike turned around and fled back to the prop room. He gathered the loops of cord into his hands and pulled. One tug, longer tug, one tug. Then he waited. And waited. The cord was pulled tight, so someone had to be holding the other end. They had to be there.  
Eventually, he dragged one of the boxes down from the shelf and sat on it, and contemplated going back. It felt like giving up, though. Maybe something had happened on the other side. He decided to trust his friends.

After what felt like ages Dustin finally appeared, half-running, breathing hard through the checkered scarf.

"Mike!" he called, and looked immensely relieved to see him. "Mike, what happened? Why didn't you signal to us? Are you okay?"

He insisted on helping the confused Mike up, and by then Will and Lucas had joined them, looking just as alarmed at first.

"Watch out, the floor's slippery," Mike said.

Lucas shoved at him, but not hard. His voice was muffled by the bandanna covering his mouth. "Who cares about the floor! What's going on? We waited ages for you!"

"An hour and forty-three minutes," Dustin agreed.

"But... No. I haven't been here that long. Look."

Mike showed Dustin his watch. It read 06:36. Dustin's read 08:24.

"Oh, man," Dustin mumbled. "A tear in space and _time_. Why didn't we think of that? Stupid."

Will seemed to make himself smaller inside his jacket, like it was devouring him. "Yeah. I remember. Time's kind of funny here. I didn't know how long I'd been hiding until... until I got out."

Lucas looked from watch to watch. "Does this mean we've only got a few hours before Mike's sister checks on us?"

"It's-- It's okay, guys. She-- she knows. I told her." Mike looked around, sucking on his teeth. The air seemed so still. Maybe it _was_ standing still, because time moved more slowly in Upside Down. It was a weird thought.

"You _what?!_ " Lucas looked ready to shove at him again.

"It's okay. She was totally cool about it. She'll keep watch on the other side, in case—just in case. She won't tell on us."

The others didn't look entirely convinced.

"I know where she's stashed her beer," Mike finally threw in. It seemed to reassure his friends, but he didn't like it. It felt low to hold onto blackmail material. Nancy wasn't a member of their party, but she was an ally nonetheless. Big sister or no. "Come on. I checked out the hall; it looks quiet. We should get going."

He led the way out of the prop room. The hall was dark and lifeless ahead of them; it didn't even echo with their voices. Mike marched across the stage without looking back. El was out there, waiting for them.

When Mike got to the edge of the stage, he swung his legs over and dropped himself down—but his feet didn't meet the floor. He sank into still water, too deep to comprehend and cold enough to freeze his mind so he didn't even make a noise. One astonished breath, one gurgling breath, and then he was hopelessly underneath the surface and sinking beyond the reach of the pale blue light. The flashlight slipped from his hand and disappeared, a flicker of pale light into the abyss. The backpack was a leaden weight. The scarf unwound and whorled around his head like seaweed. Mike kicked, but it didn't seem to help at all. He opened his mouth to yell through the water and didn't taste salt; the water didn't taste like anything, only numbing cold against his tongue.

Something brushed against his leg. Something big and smooth and moving slowly through the water.

Mike scrambled around, but the water was too dark, and his last bits of air trickled out of his nose in bubbles that further obscured his view. He could still make out a long shape, _serpentine_ shape, underneath him. It was coiling closer to him. He let out a soundless scream, the water rushing down his throat.

He felt someone groping his shoulder, then his arm. The straps of the backpack where pulled tight for a moment, and then the weight eased. Mike's next frantic kick kept him from sinking further, and the next brought him up a little. The hand returned, turned into a hooked arm and sneaked under Mike's arm, pulling him back up towards the light. Mike concentrated on kicking and holding his breath and not looking down, not looking at the thing in the water with him. His ears buzzed and he was so numb. He wasn't sure if the blue sparks ahead were light through the water, or just him seeing stars.

Voices returned as soon as his head popped to the surface.

"There they are! Bring him here, bring him here!"

"Mike! Are you okay, Mike?"

Mike coughed and gagged, and couldn't stop himself from throwing up. Nothing came up but water. He couldn't even taste bile; the water made everything odorless, like a cold sloshing nothing. He became aware of Dustin in the water next to him trying to boost him up so that Lucas could catch hold of him.

"Get out of the water," Mike gasped. "Out of the water."

Did he imagine it, or did something move under his feet, the wave of its passing licking at him?

"You first! Take his hand!" Dustin shook with the stubborn effort to push him upwards.

Mike reached up as high as he could. Lucas caught the sleeve of his jacket and pulled, and Mike found the stage's edge, using it as a foothold. It was slippery but Lucas had a good hold on him, and he finally scrambled up onto the stage, shivering and nauseous. Will and Lucas reached down again to help Dustin up, and Mike turned to help.

The serpentine thing surged up behind Dustin, a black shape in black water. It was close enough to the surface to make out where its head was now, even though Mike couldn't see any eyes.

"What the shit is that?" Lucas mumbled under his breath, his outreached hand slackening.

"Come on, Dustin!" Will called, his voice trembling. "Don't look behind you, just grab my hand!"

The serpent almost surfaced this time, even closer to Dustin, showing a patch of shiny black scales along its back.

Dustin didn't look back, not once. When Will and Lucas pulled him up, he wasn't coughing as badly as Mike but he was just as soaking wet. It was his thick sweater; it had soaked up tons of water.

"Sorry about your backpack, Mike," was the first thing out of his mouth. He swiped wet hair out of his eyes. "Lucas told me to cut it loose."

"I saw it on TV," Lucas explained, even though no one had asked for an explanation. "There was this ice-fisher, and he fell through the ice, and they had to cut all the fish he'd caught loose, so he wouldn't drown. And he said, when they got him up on the ice again, he said, 'what the hell you do that for, now I gotta catch them all over again!'"

Although he still gagged a little bit, and his teeth were chattering with cold, Mike burst into stupid, uncontrollable laughter. It spread to the others, and they all giggled like little kids, just happy to be able to laugh.

Mike caught Dustin into a hug before he'd finished chuckling. "Thanks for coming to get me."

Dustin hugged back with all his strength, not even caring that Lucas was rolling his eyes. He was cool that way. "I owed you a jump, Mike."

There was nothing Mike could say to that, except take his time separating from the embrace. He saw Dustin's hat on the stage floor, and put it back on his head, over his wet hair. Lucas flicked the visor down over his eyes.

Will had dug out the binoculars and was gazing over the silent waters. "I can't see it any more. It's gone."

"You guys saw it, too, right?" Lucas's eyes were huge. "There was something in the water with you. Like a..."

"Serpent. Yeah, it brushed up against me," Mike said. He tried not to sound terrified. He was wet and cold and his teeth chattered. He realized that without his backpack he had no other clothes.

Dustin pulled off his sweater and dug out a spare one that was just as thick. He had a spare hoodie, which he offered to Mike with a firm nod. It was at least dry. Once he'd gotten rid of the dripping jacket and pulled the hoodie on Mike hugged his knees and concentrated on getting warm.

Will had gone back to peering through his binoculars. "The doors are open. You think the whole community center's like this?"

"The floor's lava," Lucas said. "But it wasn't like this outside, right? In the woods. Or in your house."

Will lowered the binoculars and shook his head. "I never saw any water. Not once." He swallowed, and looked a bit sick.

"Right. So as long as we head towards Mirkwood, we'll reach dry land eventually."

"I vote we go out through the back door." Dustin got up. Something had caught his attention in the shadows to the side of the stage.

When he dug it out it turned out to be a huge wooden prop mirror.

"Remember? We did Snow White last year." Dustin beamed at his discovery. "Can't believe it was actually here. You think there's other stuff here from the normal world, too? Normal stuff?"

"Will's house is here," Lucas said, but he sounded unsure.

 _El's here._ Mike was sure of it. He didn't say it out loud, because he knew what the others would say: she wasn't from the normal world, not really. Nothing about her had been normal. Maybe they wouldn't say it, they were nice enough not to, but they would think it, and he would know and it would feel awful. So he kept quiet and made a bundle of his wet jacket and sweater with the cord so he could carry them over his shoulder.

"Mike, you want my extra sweater?" Will offered.

Mike nodded. He couldn't feel his toes.

"Less for me to carry," Will said when he handed it over. "I wish I had extra socks to give you, too."

"The one time I could use more socks," Mike said and they shared a smile. It was nice. Will hadn't smiled as much since he'd returned, and Mike realized he'd missed it.

Dustin came over, squeezing water out of his scarf. When he dug out a spare one he also took out some trail mix and Smarties and tossed them to Mike.

"Fill up your HP and then let's see if we have to build a raft to get out of here. I told you we both needed to pack trail mix! Was I right or what?"

Mike felt like he'd somehow slipped out of his seat at the end of the table. The others had taken charge, saving him from monsters and coming up with the plans. It was different but actually not that bad, he decided. It was nice to just sit and eat snacks and not lead the game for a while.

Before they left he fished the unravelled ball of cord from the pocket of his jacket and cut out a strip. He tied it around the knob of the door to the prop room, a bright orange spot to mark it. He wound up the rest of the cord and put it back into his pocket for later, to keep marking their path. Whoever lead them, they needed to find their way back in the end.


	5. Chapter 5

_That's a crit, Lucas! The bugbear never had a chance. You find ten gold pieces in the pouch it carried. The jungle around you falls silent. But what's that you see above you? High in the treetops there are enormous webs, and not just webs but houses, skillfully woven and decorated with gems. You've stumbled upon the lairs of the aranea, the super intelligent magic-using spiders! Does their power stem from the evil Sorcerer, or could they become allies against him? They're coming down from the trees, one by one. What's your action?_

Will watched his breath mist in the air as he followed Dustin. Deep, good, calm breaths. It was not that he _liked_ being back in the Upside Down. It wasn't a place to be liked; it was a place made for monsters. But he'd known with a horrible clarity he would have to come back eventually, and now that it had happened, it was a relief somehow. The bad thing inside him, the thing gnawing and gnawing, was finally home. He'd brought it home. He hoped that he'd set something right. It didn't feel right, not yet.

Dustin was humming under his breath. He sometimes did that when he was nervous. Will felt a pang inside him; he didn't want to be here alone, oh God no, the thought alone made him shiver, but his friends should get out as soon as they could. They weren't safe here. No one was.

"We're going uphill," Lucas burst out. "We're going uphill again! Since when's Mirkwood so damn steep?"

It wasn't the only thing that was different, of course; it was just the easiest thing to bring up. Will looked over his shoulder; he should've been able to make out from here where Mike's street was, but it was too far below them. There were no lights in Hawkins at all except for a pale glow. A deep, black lake started at the edge of the town and stretched on too far to be fathomed. It had started to swallow some houses, like the old community center. Will wondered if the water was rising. Maybe they were already on an island and didn't know it.

There was a Watcher in the water, at least. They'd seen it. Was it to keep something out, or keep something in?

"Another one," Mike suddenly called, kneeling down by a fallen tree. He picked up and waved a candy wrapper; unlike almost everything else around them, it wasn't covered in cobwebs or mold or something disgusting. It was a bright red, and new. It didn't look like it belonged any more than they did.

"There's one, too," Dustin pointed out, and slumped down onto the tree trunk to catch his breath. "It sort of looks like a clearing. Maybe she stopped to eat here."

 _If it was her._ Will could see the doubt in the look Dustin and Lucas exchanged while Mike was searching for more clues. No one voiced it. Will hadn't even met this girl, couldn't properly picture her from the strange description he'd been given, but he knew that she'd earned their loyalty. He'd seen the way Mike had changed, brightened inside, when he'd found out that El could still be alive. While he'd been gone their party had grown by one. When you had friends as good as his you felt big changes like that in your gut; you didn't need to be told about them.

"Shit," Dustin grumbled. "My socks are wet."

Lucas sat down next to him with an exasperated sigh. "You know what's missing? I just figured it out. There's no fence on that side of the road. You know, the wire fence? It's not there."

He was right. It was like the ground had swallowed it, leaving only forest floor and those thick vines that seemed to have crept everywhere. Sometimes from the corner of his eye Will could see them shifting slightly, tightening their hold. Growing.

"Oh." Mike stretched the sleeves of Will's sweater, wrapping them around his hands to warm them up. "There's no Hawkins lab on this side? I thought your mom said..."

"That they went through there to find me. I know. This place... Maybe it's changing." Will felt cold, too. He buried his hands deep into his pockets.

"Changing how? Buildings can't just... disappear. How does that work?" Lucas sounded annoyed.

"When we get back we can ask Mr. Clarke," Dustin suggested.

Mike had wandered off again, his eyes glued to the ground.

Will felt a familiar lurch inside him. The back of his throat clamped shut. _Not yet. Not yet._

"I gotta pee," he muttered, and walked away from the others, behind a thick bush of some kind. It was covered in pollen-like fluff. It looked a little bit like snow.

Will cupped his hands against his mouth, leaned forward and let it happen. The first wave of nausea didn't bring the slug up, but it rode up on the next, slithering up his throat and into his mouth. He still thought it should've tasted like something; it didn't, leaving only the faint traces of his own bile on his tongue. He spat the slug into his hands. It writhed there until he dropped it down, and then it burrowed into the ground and was gone.

"You're home," Will whispered after it. "You're welcome."

He wiped his mouth, and joined the others. Mike had something pink in his hand he was showing them. It looked like a girl's ribbon at first, but then Will realized it was just a strip of clothing that had torn off.

Dustin touched it. "That's from--"

"El's dress. We're on the right track," Mike told them. His smile was lit up with hope. "Come on, this way!"

 

*

The roots of the trees multiplied as they continued further into the woods until they were complex knots to climb over. For long stretches of time they couldn't feel the ground under their soles at all, and their grips slipped on the slimy bark. Will couldn't tell the thinnest roots apart from the largest vines that had crept over everything. It was like climbing up an enormous pile of snakes that someone had turned into stone.

"What do you suppose is on top of this hill?" Dustin thought aloud, wiping sweat off his face.

"We'll find out," Will told him. He hadn't meant it to sound ominous.

They found more tiny signs of life, of El; empty soda bottles, another strip of dirty pink dress, an empty Eggo box. Mike was in the lead. They couldn't keep up with him. He didn't seem to get tired at all.

"Wait up, Mike!" Will called. He swallowed down a wave of nausea, and hoped it didn't mean what he was afraid it did. It was too soon. Was time really that different here, or did the slugs just multiply faster? He didn't like either of those choices.  
Mike stopped and turned to look back at them, not for the first time. Will could tell it wasn't easy for him but he waited for the rest of them to catch up with him. His lips were moving silently: _Come on, come on, please, come on, come on._

"Whoa, what's that up ahead?" Dustin pointed at something past Mike, making him whirl around so fast he almost lost his footing.

"I can see 'em, too!" Lucas exclaimed. "They're coming this way!"

Will heard them before he saw them; a high-pitched yipping and squealing sound that made him think of injured dogs. At first, they looked a bit like dogs, too, running on four legs. But as soon as he saw the first one's head, he knew they were not animals. Not like any animals from the real world. Mike scrambled out of the way when the first one of them jumped towards him, and a round, teethed mouth made a wet smacking sound when it missed his arm. The creatures were about the same size as cats, although the one in the lead was noticably bigger. They had no eyes and their noses were just two gaping nostrils in their round heads. Their shrill, keening whines filled the air as they ran and leapt over the roots and vines towards them.

"Climb up! Climb the trees!" Lucas yelled over the noise. He already had his Wrist-Rocket in his hand. 

Will dug his fingers into the bark of the nearest tree, and pulled himself up, shoes slipping helplessly against the trunk as he tried to get a good foothold. Dustin was already grasping at a sturdy branch, reaching out as far as he could to haul himself up. Will heard Lucas score his first hit when he finally managed to clamp his legs around a branch and hoped it would hold him.

"Yeah! You want some of this, you stupid bugbears?"

"They're not bugbears!" Mike protested from his own tree. Will realized he was climbing _down_ , inching closer to Lucas who ignored his outreached hand.

Lucas kicked at the creatures that had gotten too close, trying to fit another stone into the Wrist-Rocket. "Then what are they?"

"Bugbears are bipedal goblinoids! Lucas! Take my hand!"

"Get away from there, Lucas!" Dustin urged, panic raising his voice.

A dozen of the creatures had gathered around Lucas to try to nip at him with their small but sharp teeth. The others surrounded the trees the rest of them had climbed. They kept relentlessly trying to jump up, but their claws couldn't get a hold on the tree trunks so they slid back down, again and again. Their mouths made disgusting wet sounds as they opened and closed.

With Mike's help, Lucas struggled up the same tree that Mike had climbed. He had the Wrist-Rocket in his teeth since he needed both his hands.

"I can't... Help! I'm slipping!" Dustin scrambled for a better hold on his branch. His hands shook. His feet kicked at the bark in desperation, but he was going to fall, Will could see it right away.

There was nothing he could do. If he reached out a hand he'd be the next to fall down. The creatures, the bugbears, gathered eagerly underneath, opening their round mouths wide. Some were jumping up to nip at Dustin's clothes, trying to bring him down faster.

"Get away from him!" Lucas yelled at them, throwing his Wrist-Rocket at them since he had nothing else to throw. The bugbears jumped back, but they soon started closing in again.

Dustin came down with a terrified cry. The bugbears' nasty yipping and yowling almost drowned it out.

"Dustin!" Will watched helplessly as his friend curled into a protective ball and tried to shield his face from the maw of the first bugbear that jumped at him.

It never reached him. The bugbear suddenly stopped mid-air, and flew in the opposite direction, disappearing between the tree roots with a pained squeal. The rest of the bugbears were thrown away from Dustin like a gust of wind had scattered them. But there was no wind.

A girl stood on a curled vine, looking down at the creatures. Will couldn't tell where she had come from. Her hair was short and messy, and her dress was so dirty it was hard to tell at first it was pink. She wore a jacket over it, and a long woolly scarf. She was tense and motionless with concentration. The bugbears fled at the sight of her although she seemed to be only standing there, unafraid.

"El!" Mike had never sounded happier. He practically fell down from the tree, bugbears forgotten, stumbled over to the girl who still hadn't moved, and hugged her tight. "It's you. It's really you."

After a moment's hesitation, her arms came up, and she relaxed against him.

El? This was El? Will climbed down to cautiously step closer. She looked a bit like a boy, with her short hair, although she was smaller than he'd expected. She breathed fast. Her knee-length socks didn't match.

Lucas had helped Dustin up, and they stepped closer.

"Good to see you, El," Dustin said, his mouth drawing into a wide smile. "Will, this is El. She's super good at saving people."

His hand twitched towards Mike and El, to join in the hug, but Will held him back. It didn't look like a hug meant to be shared with the whole group.

It lasted a long time.


	6. Chapter 6

_You reach the rope bridge to the central plateau, where the Sorcerer's temple lies. It's old and barely holding together, and has gaping gaps that could take you straight to the bottom of the ravine. Dexterity checks, please! And while you're rolling... Leathery wings beat the hot air, and two giant pterodactyls take flight! These are not just any pterodactyls—they're undead monstrosities with +2 Strength and Dexterity, raised to do the Sorcerer's bidding and guard the way to his seat of power. You should hurry. Get over the bridge, before they swoop down and throw you off it._

 

It was Mike who eventually ended the hug. He held El by the shoulders, and then let his hands drop, blushing now that the moment was over. By then the others couldn't hold back their curiosity any longer.

"El, how did you get back? Did it—did it hurt? When you killed the Demogorgon?" Lucas picked up his Wrist-Rocket, but his eyes never left El.

"We're here to rescue you," Dustin announced.

Mike nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah. We can take you back with us, El. Back to, to the real world. It's okay, we know a safe path through."

"If it's still there," Lucas pointed out in a mutter, but he was mostly ignored.

El couldn't have looked less like someone who wanted to be rescued. Her gaze darted between them, and the perplexed frown on her face was deepening.

"We can't talk here," she said, and looked up towards the summit of the hill. "Let's go up to my room."

It sounded so normal and out of place in the Upside Down that she had to have borrowed the phrase from someone. They followed her as best they could, but she seemed to almost float over the difficult parts of the climb. Maybe she actually did. Dustin had said she could. She did look a bit strange, but nowhere near strange enough for levitation powers, Will mused. If he drew her, he'd give her a cape at least.

They tried to keep up, but not even Mike could keep his eyes on her the whole time. At the root of a huge and gnarled tree that seemed to rest against the side of the hill they stopped and realized they'd lost sight of El completely.

"Now what?" Lucas leant his hands on his knees, breathing hard. They'd been climbing for over an hour, or it felt like it, at least.

Mike called El's name and glanced about anxiously.

The tree rearranged itself. That was what it looked like. Its bark bent to the sides to make room for a narrow opening in its trunk. It unfolded open before their eyes, and El stepped out, casually, like she'd just opened her front door.

"This way," she said, and disappeared back inside the tree.

Mike ran right in after her and they followed him into the darkness, not wanting to be left behind. It was a narrow path, and Will hit his elbow and almost tripped on a vine as he struggled to keep up. It smelled like pine needles and damp inside the tree. Finally the way opened into a roundish cavern. There was a soft, green glow that caught to the pollen that floated in the air and made it look like the slowest swarm of fireflies ever. In its light, Will could see that clothing wasn't the only thing El had collected from the Upside Down Hawkins. The walls consisted of nasty-looking vines or roots, packed together tightly. There were no windows, but there were familiar touches in the place. There was a fold-up chair in the corner and on it was a pile of snacks. Stuffed animals surrounded a pile of blankets that must've been El's bed.

It reminded Will of Castle Byers. It was someone's own place, made to look exactly how they wanted. Their safe place to be alone.

El sat down on the floor and looked at them, her mouth a tiny line.

"Oh. No door. I get it. Nice." Mike crouched down in front of her. "This is your room? We can talk here?"

El nodded.

Words fell out of Mike's mouth in rapid succession. "Okay. We're here—we came to help you. So... maybe tell us a-about the bad people, or whoever it is, and why -- why you couldn't tell us that you're, that you're okay." He drew a breath through his nose, and his face changed, showing sharp hurt. "We thought. We thought you were gone, El. Gone for good."

"No," El said softly, and looked down at her knees. "Not any more. I'm sorry, Mike."

Lucas frowned. "What do you mean, not any more.?"

El didn't look up. "I was... gone, at first. Then I woke up. Here."

Mike tried so hard to smile, even though Will could see it on his face that he was upset. "Okay. You... you woke up all alone, and you couldn't reach us at first, but you did it in the end. You did it, El. We came through the gate you opened! The one that stayed open!"

Now it was El who looked lost. She shook her head. "I didn't. I didn't open the gate. It wasn't me."

A sudden noise from outside cut off Mike's reply. The voice that wailed like a hurt dog. Another voice joined it, then another; scratching sounds echoed through the vine walls as the bugbears climbed clamoring down the tree. It sounded like a swarm rather than a pack.

El stood up and went to squeeze through the narrow way out. "Wait here."

"El," Mike called after her, but she didn't turn around.

"Man, she's even crazier now than before," Lucas said, and sat down on the floor to dig out his last Mars bar. "You sure she needs our help, Mike? I mean, I'm glad she's okay, but... What?"

Dustin had swatted him, but it was too late; Mike looked like someone had kicked him in the stomach.

Will swallowed. The secret burned inside him, and it was burrowing out, he could feel it, burrowing out like the worms. He pushed into the dark after El.

He found her right outside her lair, standing on a vine, staring down at something in the gloom. Mist had settled, and Will couldn't make out at first what it was she was staring at. One by one, the dark shapes of the bugbears became visible as the mist shifted.

"Go away," she mumbled. "Take them away."

The pack changed direction, running into the mist, and soon Will could no longer see them, just hear the faint yipping and howling.

A drop of blood trickled down from El's nose. She put her hand up to wipe it off, and seemed to become aware of him.

"You can talk to the bugbears?"

"Bugbears?" She sniffed. "Yes. The big one. Their... their papa."

Will shuffled his feet. "You didn't try to reach us, did you."

"No." It sounded a little like an apology. "Too much... danger. Bad men. Out there. They would find out. They would... come after you."

The truth raked Will's throat coming up, like vomiting bile. "I think it was me. I made it happen. I think there's something in me that... wanted to come back here."

El's eyes narrowed. "Something that belongs here?"

"Yeah. A piece of this place. I took it with me, when Mom came to get me. I don't know how. I was... I was sick. I don't remember what happened."

"It's... nice to belong somewhere," El said, almost like she was talking to herself.

It was hard to breathe all of a sudden. Big, ugly sobs welled up from inside Will and he couldn't stop them; he blinked back hot tears. "I don't want to. I want—I just want to be home, with Mom, and Jonathan. I don't want to stay here. Not again. Not ever again."

El was quiet, and nice enough to turn her head while he rubbed at his eyes and tried to catch his breath. Finally she glanced at the doorway to her little lair, and then at him. "They know?"

Will shook his head miserably.

"You should tell them," El said, with steel in her tone. "Friends don't lie."

"I know," Will mumbled. "I know. I'm going to."

A gust of chilly wind scattered the mist. El wrapped her arms around herself. "We can go back inside. They're gone now. The... bugbears."

"Hey, um. El. Can you..." Will made a sound that tried to be a chuckle. "Please don't tell them that I cried."

She frowned in confusion, but then nodded, and took his hand to lead him in, like that was something they had done for ages. Like they'd been friends since first grade, when you could still hold hands with a girl. 

"Promise."


	7. Chapter 7

_Okay, you successfully sneak inside the temple past the undead guards. You're in the entrance hall, an intimidating echoing space that smells of death and necrotic magic. This is where the Sorcerer holds power over the entire cursed island. The walls and the floor are made of black volcanic stone. You can turn either left or right, or take the wide stairs to the next level. Left? You're sure? All right. You find yourself in... Hold on, let me get the map... You're in the Sorcerer's pet quarters, where his vile creatures are kept in chains or in a magical slumber, ready to be awakened and set free to do his bidding! As you look around, a huge shape steps out of the shadows and roars. It's... an undead Megalosaurus! Your actions! Yes, you're first. Wait, you want to do what? Um... yes, I guess technically you can backstab it..._

 

Will had expected his friends to be mad at him. He'd been preparing for it ever since they left the real world. What he couldn't take was the stunned silence. It felt horrible to realize they didn't know what to do any more. than he did. They sat in a circle around a pile of snacks, in El's lair, and no one would speak up, not even Dustin. Chocolate and trail mix filled the void left by words. Will wrapped his arms around his legs and made himself small, like when he'd been running from the Demogorgon.

When Mike stopped chewing on the insides of his cheeks he didn't even look at Will. He rounded on El instead. "I don't understand. How can you live here, El? This is the Vale of Shadows! Nothing grows here but monsters!"

El stood up and started pacing the room. She dragged her fingertips along the wall. It rippled in her wake with a wooden creak, rearranging itself. "That's just what people call them," she whispered.

Lucas scoffed. "I know they're only bugbears, but I wouldn't want to live next door to them. Come on, El, what about food? And... and all the other normal people stuff?"

El had stopped and leaned the side of her head against the wall. It was molding slowly to her shape around her. "I can find... food. Everything is easier, when I'm here. Like in the bath. It's quiet. I... belong."

"Guys," Dustin said slowly. " _We_ started calling this the Vale of Shadows, right? The echo of the material realm, the place of dark and evil magic? Because that's what it looked like? But maybe we're full of shit. I mean, Vale of Shadows is a D  & D thing. It's made up. It's not like this dimension has to follow its rules, or something. Maybe... it follows its own kind of rules."

El stayed silent and hunched up against the wall.

"Okay, it's a real, different dimension. But. El. You really wanna stay here? You don't want to come back and, and live in a real house? Where... where you can have friends?" Mike implored her.

She sank down to sit on the floor, drawing her knees up. "It's not safe in your house, Mike. They can come to your door. Any time. They can find me there."

"Dude, she has a point."'

"Shut up!" Mike snapped at Dustin.

Lucas drank the last drops of water from his flask. "What if they walk through that same gate that Will's mom and Hopper used? They'll be able to find you then."

El smiled. It was a threatening kind of smile, even without showing any teeth. "I closed it. I... grew it shut. Safer."

Lucas gaped. " _You_ made the lab disappear? How?"

She shrugged, unconcerned. "I sank it into the ground. It was... a bad place. I didn't want it to be there any more."

Will wondered how many changes to the Upside Down they'd seen had been made or caused by her. The water that had isolated her elevated lair, the buildings that sank and disappeared, the vines that moved according to her whims. She seemed to treat it all as fair game. There was no one there to challenge her.

"So when the gate in the prop room disappears..." Mike swallowed hard and looked down at the floor. "We won't be able to reach you any more. We won't be able to see you again."

"I can reach you. If it's... safe. I wasn't sure, before." She bit her lip. "When you go back... maybe I can visit. In a safe place, like the basement. Sometime."

"When we go back?" Will burst out, unable to help himself. He wanted to cry again, out of frustration this time. It was so stupid. He wasn't a baby. "Don't you guys get it? I can't go home because I'm the one making it unsafe! I'm the one with this _thing_ stuck inside me that doesn't belong!"

"Will," El started, then hesitated.

Will resolutely shook his head. "If I go back I'll keep opening gates everywhere. And then they _will_ find you, the bad people. No one's safe if I go back."

"We're not going home and leaving you behind," Dustin said firmly. "Uh uh. No way. We'll find a way to fix it, Will. We'll figure it out."

"Yeah, definitely," Mike echoed.

El walked over to Will and sat down opposite of him. She reached out a hand towards him, hesitantly, waiting for him to pull back. He didn't. Her fingertips brushed over his throat, and immediately he could feel the cold slug shifting inside him, like she was calling to it.

"Have you tried to give it back?" she asked.

Will suppressed a tremor. "I've tried. I mean, I wish I knew how. There's always more slugs. It never ends."

El shook her head. "No. The gift. The whole gift."

Will stared at her. Gift? It was the last word he would've chosen. Curse was more like it.

"Maybe... something here wanted to help you belong," El suggested quietly. She sat back and glanced at the others. "You tried to help me belong, too. When I was on the other side."

"We didn't shove slugs down your throat!" Lucas pointed out loudly.

Mike inched closer. "Can you do something to help him?"

"I..." El looked at him, her eyes wide and dark. "I think I know the place. Where you could return it." She turned back to Will. "Trust me?"

 _I've never even seen you before today_ , Will thought. _You have superpowers but you don't follow a code. You made your home in a dark and scary place full of monsters. You're the weirdest girl I've ever met and my friends like you, even when they're mad at you._

"Yes," he said with a solemn nod.

 

*

It wasn't a long climb to the top of the hill, or it didn't seem that way looking up from the doorway of El's lair, but it was one of the hardest climbs of Will's life. He could see the others were struggling, too. El helped a few times, catching people before they could slip, making sure no one would fall. The trees became scragglier the higher they climbed until all they were clinging to were vines, endless vines that moved at odd times and gave nasty scratches when their hands slipped.

Will was a pretty good climber, and he reached the top first, after El of course. He avoided looking down the way he'd come from. It had to be a long drop.

El pointed ahead. "Down there."

It wasn't a hill or a mountain they'd been climbing but a volcano. They were standing on the edge of its crater. The vines climbed over its edge and disappeared into its pitch-black depths. Will thought he could make out the haphazard web the roots and vines formed before they were swallowed by the dark.

"The... core, the center place," El said softly. "It's down there. That's where I woke up after I killed the Demogorgon."

The others started to join them on the edge of the crater, panting and groaning and helping each other with the last push.

Will bit his lip. He was so scared. He wished he could be as brave as he was when he was Will the Wise, a powerful wizard. It was harder to be brave when you couldn't cast fireballs.

"The rest of them," he said. "You can take them back? You know how?"

El nodded. It was a quiet promise.

"We're not leaving here without you, I told you," Dustin insisted, tugging his scarf loose.

"Just in case something happens." Will took a deep breath, because in the books it helped. It didn't. He still felt nauseous and his heart thumped loud in his ears. "If I don't come back... I want you to have my copy of Pitfall!, Dustin."

"Aw," Dustin said, and scratched under his cap, smiling awkwardly.

Will shoved gently at his shoulder. "You're the only guy I know who has an Atari 2600."

Dustin pretended to punch him, and they laughed.

Lucas grabbed Will in a quick and bone-crunching hug and then clapped him on the back. "We're all going home together."

"Not all of us," Mike said quietly. The air current from the crater whipped his hair in his eyes. "I know. For everyone to be safe and happy... You can't stay in our world, and Will can't stay in yours."

"Oh my God," Dustin exclaimed, his eyes widening. "El is Frodo."

"What are you talking about?" Mike couldn't help laughing a little, despite his forlorn demeanor.

"Think about it. The Shire's been saved... but not for her. So this is her Undying Lands."

Will joined Lucas and Mike in their chuckling, even though Dustin insisted he was completely serious and El looked amused but confused. "I guess that makes you Samwise, then, Mike."

Mike shrugged. "Well, Sam's totally paladin class, so I'm okay with that."

Will had to reach up to hug him. Mike had always been taller than him. "If I don't come back," he mumbled against Mike's jacket, hating that he had to say it, "you tell Jonathan what happened. Tell him it was my choice."

El had sneaked closer. "Ready?" 

Will separated from Mike and nodded to her. He had to sniffle and blink his eyes a bit.

"You want me to come with you?" El asked, entirely serious. "It's scary, when you're alone in the dark."

It was really cool of her to offer. She didn't even know him that well. Will saw clearly then why the others liked her so much. He wanted to find out more of the reasons. "No. Thanks. Stay here with the others. Please. Until I come back. Or--"

"Until you come back," El said.

Will took the one step there was room to take, and jumped into the gaping maw of the crater.


	8. Chapter 8

The very air seemed to stand still. Their snacks were put down. Their dice were silent. They were ready to face their ultimate destiny.

"As his summoned creatures lie dead at his feet, the Sorcerer of the Isle of Dread lets out a deafening cry of fury!" The cultist leader figurine was pushed hastily to the center of the room drawn on the board. "He turns and runs up the stairs of black marble that lead to his throne, his mad eyes on the gleaming orb that rests on the pillar next to it. The orb shines menacingly down at him and you, like a poison-green storm is trapped within. What do you do? El, you're first again."

El rolled the die Mike had lent her. Fifteen. She nodded and pushed her halfling figurine to the side, then forward, until she was standing behind the villain. "Sneak."

"All right. He's distracted; he doesn't notice your approach."

Lucas hissed approvingly. "Yes! Use that +2 poison dagger you got from the troglodyte cave!"

El smiled to him and nodded, sitting back in her chair. She'd drawn her feet up on it. She scratched softly at her knees whenever something exciting happened.

"First, the rest of you? Dustin, your action?"

Dustin was going through his character sheet again, frowning in concentration. As a bard he had the skills of three different classes, so he was forever checking his sheet. "Uh, okay. I'm... casting Cure Light Wounds on Lucas."

"What? No! I'm okay! Shoot the bad guy!" Lucas gestured wildly, almost knocking over the can of soda on the table.

Dustin's die clattered angrily onto the board. Six. "I'm out of arrows, numbnuts! I shot that giant pterodactyl like fifteen times! Take your six hit points. and shut up!"

Will tried hard not to laugh while Lucas scrawled the offending points onto his sheet. The group took their cue from him; if he lost focus, the atmosphere he'd built up until now was lost. "Mike?"

Mike had been studying the board. "Can I ram the Sorcerer with my shield?"

"Nnnot up the stairs, no."

"Oh, right, the stairs. Hmm. Gimme a second..."

Will made an apologetic noise. "I know, I should've drawn the stairs. But the room was already so cluttered..."

"Yeah, you didn't have to actually draw in all the dead dinosaurs," Dustin ventured.

"What, are you kidding? They look badass!"

"Thanks, Lucas. Still waiting for your action, Mike."

"Just a second!" Mike looked flustered. His eyes went from his character sheet to the game board and back. "Okay. Okay, I got it. The room had no ceiling, right? The sun is still out?"

"It's just setting over the evil lair, painting the sky above you crimson," Will threw in. He hadn't planned it to be evening, but now it seemed appropriate. The sun was setting on the dreaded island. He liked the mental image of it.

"I reflect its last rays with my shield and attempt to blind the evil Sorcerer," Mike declared. "He's lurked in the shadows for far too long. It's time we bring him to the light of justice!"

"Wow, Mike!" Dustin nudged his shoulder. "Way to go, paladin!"

"That's a good trick... If you succeed," Will said, as ominously as he could. "Throw the die."

The die settled on a seven. A collective groan went around the table. Mike threw himself back in the chair like he'd been hit in the chest.

"Oh, man."

"Good idea, though."

El's fingers unhooked from around her knee and touched Mike's arm. "Bad luck," she reminded him.

That was how they'd explained the dice to her. Without them, without the possibility of a bad roll, there was no tension in the game. So if they wanted to have fun, they needed bad luck, sometimes.

"Yeah." Mike smiled a little, and didn't look like he minded that much after all.

"Your paladin makes a stirring speech and strikes a pose, but it has no visible effect," Will said, trying to be kind. "Finally, Lucas."

"I'm closest, so I run towards the Sorcerer and attack him! Eat my axe, you orc-faced scum!" Lucas almost tossed the die off the table, but it stopped right on the edge. When he saw the 18, he threw his hands up and yelled in triumph. "Yeah! Here comes the pain!"

There was a collective whoop as he gathered up all his damage dice. They were in his favor, too, costing the Sorcerer a maximum number of hit points. Will marked them down. A good start, but now it was his turn.

"The Sorcerer staggers from the force of your strike, but he's still on his feet. If you weren't a dwarf a strike like that might've cut off his head. His bone armor shatters before your eyes, but he's far from beaten. He reaches out towards the orb, curving his long, bony hand over it. 'Fools!' he cries out, his voice like nails on a dirty chalkboard. 'You dare to approach me in my lair? You do not know the power of the Orb of Shadows! It can open the gates to the darkest of dimensions!'"

"Oh yeah, we've seen that," Dustin muttered, eyes narrowing. "All those minor level demons we killed at the gates."

"The sickly green light surges from the orb and into the Sorcerer's body! His maniacal laughter is drowned out by the rumble of unnatural lightning. You're all hit with bolts of dark magic!" Will rolled the dice. "El, ten points of damage! Dustin, fourteen and you're stunned! Mike, eight points! Lucas... Twenty-three, and you're stunned, too! Bet you're glad for that Heal, now."

As he had expected everyone moaned and groaned, but they all marked down their damage without disputing it. It probably shouldn't feel so good to deal out damage to his friends but Will had to bite back a grin all the while. There was a sense of power to DMing, he had noticed as the adventure stretched on, that could easily get out of hand. He had to be careful so that everyone else had fun, too.

El grabbed the die and threw it without waiting for Will's nod to do so. 14. "I put the poison dagger into his back," she said. Her quiet assurance made it sound menacing.

"Okay, that's a hit. He shrieks in pain! Roll the damage, and he's slowed until the end of next turn. Dustin, you're out. Mike?"

"I charge up the stairs until I'm at melee distance," Mike said, moving his paladin figurine. "I bring down my sword and... I miss. Are you kidding me! He's slowed!"

"Hey, at least it's not a critical miss," Will pointed out in consolation. "His bony form easily dodges your attack, and your sword merely cuts a slice off his cloak. And now it's his turn again! He turns his glowing green eyes on you—Lucas! The first one who dared to wound him!"

A gasp went around the table. Will threw the die behind his screen.

"His thoughts are like a stinging poison, seeping into your mind. You feel his words start to make sense to you..."

"Oh, no way! He's not turning me evil!" Lucas exclaimed, clutching the character sheet to his chest. He loved his dwarf warrior.

Will let the smile spread on his lips. "At the very last minute, you remember your people in the faraway dwarf kingdom. You remember how they suffer under their magical curse, the curse you vowed to break... You will not fall under it, too! You are their hero and their only hope! The Sorcerer's hold on your mind is broken!"

Dustin and Mike cheered as Lucas slumped in his chair. Even El let out a relieved breath. Will set the dice aside, pleased with himself. It was just a simple mental defence check but he liked to make them a bit dramatic sometimes.

"He saw me?" El asked him.

"Uh... yeah, you stabbed him with a poison dagger, that got his attention," Will confirmed. "You want to prepare another sneak attack?"

"Yes."

"All right, you can use this turn to skulk back into the shadows. Make a stealth roll."

Nine. Not a great result. "You quickly hide behind his grotesque throne, but you can't reach him from there with your dagger. You have to hope he moves closer so you can make your attack. Dustin?"

There was a cunning grin on Dustin's face.

"Uh oh, he's got an idea!" Lucas exclaimed.

"I cast Summon Monster to distract him and make him stagger back towards El's dagger!" Dustin put up his hand: _wait, there's more._ "The Orb is his key to the other dimensions, right? That's what he's used to summon all the undead dinosaurs?"

"Yes," Will said, wondering where he was going with this.

"Can I get any bonuses from casting a summoning spell near it?"

"Oh, he should! He so should!"

"You want to check the book? I've got the folder right here..."

Will silenced the others with a wave of his hand. "I see the logic behind that," he declared. _That's wicked awesome_ was what he actually thought, but he tried to play it cool. "You call upon his own tool of evil deeds to turn against him as you cast your spell! And... it's a success! Another undead pterodactyl appears in a cloud of mystical energy—but instead of attacking you, it turns on its previous ruler! Its cruel beak mauls him for... ten points of damage! The Sorcerer is distracted!"

"All yours, Mike," Dustin said with a grin so wide it threatened to split his face.

"I swear, if I throw a one this time..." Mike blew on his die a few times for good measure, warming it in his hands for unnervingly long.

"Make the damn throw, Mike!" Lucas told him through a mouthful of pizza. "Kick his ass!"

When Mike finally threw the die, it drew a smile out of him. Sixteen. "His evil must be vanquished! I use Smite Evil for extra damage! That's... twenty-one points!"

"Oh, he's gotta be at least half-dead by now," Dustin said. "I mean, right?" He reached out for the bag of chips.

Will hoped his face didn't give anything away. "We'll see. He's a creature of unnatural stamina. A valiant effort, Sir Michael! Your sword strikes true. But the Sorcerer's bones are as hard as steel, and his will indomitable. Is that a word? Indomitable? Anyway. Lucas, your turn."

Lucas was already throwing his trusty red twenty-sided die. "Twelve! That's enough, right?"

"Yeah, that's a hit! You hack at him with the fury of your cursed people driving your battleaxe! How much damage? Nineteen? Nice."

"Don't tell me he's still standing!" Dustin slammed his palms against the table, making the figurines jump.

Will just smiled and said nothing. He felt a thrill go down his spine. "The Sorcerer clutches the Orb of Shadows with both hands. 'Time to give you a taste of my real power!' he hisses, and hoists it up in the air. Green flames, the fire of the nether realms, pour out of the orb to burn you away!" He made the throws hastily, biting his lip, knowing the others' eyes were on him. "El, twenty-five points of fire damage! Dustin, twenty-three—but you've got your amulet on, which means it's only eighteen. Mike, fourteen points! And Lucas, six points; you got lucky."

Dustin checked his sheet yet again. "Oh shit, you guys. Without that amulet I'd be toast. I'm down to my last four hit points. We gotta get this guy down fast."

"How many more hits can the bag of bones take? This is nuts!" Lucas pursed his lips disapprovingly as he counted his remaining hit points.

"Dustin, stand back from now on. Let me take the hits, I've got the best armor," Mike said. He looked calm, but his foot tapped anxiously against the chair leg. "El, how many points have you got left? You might want to stay hidden, too."

"One." El looked at her character sheet, gnawing at her lower lip in contemplation.

"One?!" Dustin almost spat out his soda. "Holy shit! Stay in cover, El! Stay in cover!"

El looked at Will over his DM screen. "My movement... is the same?"

"Yeah, you're just really close to passing out and dying," Will said. He didn't think he managed to sound nonchalant. "What's your action?"

El looked at her character sheet, not really focusing on anything on it. Then she stared at her figurine on the board, behind the throne Will had drawn on it.

The figurine moved next to the Sorcerer.

"Sneak attack," she said.

"No!" Mike turned to El, back drawn straight with worry. "Don't get out of cover! I can deal him enough damage to finish him this turn!"

"Mike, you don't know," El said, and poked at Mike's die. "Luck."

She took the green die Mike had loaned her and threw it without hesitation.

"Ooh, I can't look," Dustin wailed.

"It rolled behind Will's screen!" Lucas tried to peek over it. "What is it? Is it a success?"

Will drew the screen down to cover his notes, shoving Lucas away. "I guess you could call it that."

He picked up the die and planted it in the middle of the board. A natural twenty. Their first for the night.

"She rolled a crit!"

"A crit! It's really a crit!"

"So what does she do?"

Will turned to El, who looked as thrown as her die. "I don't know. What do you want to do, El?"

She bit her lip. "I... can do anything I want?"

"Yeah. When you throw a twenty, your attack is a success. Just tell me what's on your mind."

El took a few seconds to think about it. Then her figurine moved again, this time climbing on top of the cult leader figurine. It teetered there. She didn't let it fall. "I'm... small. I climb his clothes. Then..." She drew her finger across her throat.

"Whoa," Mike said, quietly.

"Cut his throat where he stands!" Lucas urged her on with bloodthirsty joy, staring at the damage dice she gathered in the palm of her hand. There were lots of six-sided dice. They were almost at level nine, after all.

"You don't have to throw, it's automatically the maximum damage. So that's... twenty-four points." Will whistled. "Your dagger paints a stripe of blood on his throat! His thick, black blood oozes out, and his cry of outrage turns into a weak cough! Dustin, your turn?"

Dustin was gnawing on his nails. "My pterodactyl's still there, isn't it? I make it attack him again. And move back to the doorway so that I'm in cover."

"It goes for his eyes.... Ooh, but only for five points of damage. Bad luck. Mike?"

"Smite Evil again! Success, and... eighteen points!"

Will crossed out another total of hit points. and wrote in a new one. "You sever the vile thing's arm from his shoulder, but he still clings to the Orb with his left one! Lucas, your turn."

Lucas shoved the pizza box aside and leaned his arms against the table. "I hit the Orb with my battleaxe."

Will peered at him over the screen. "The Orb? Not the sorcerer?" He had been wondering if anyone would figure out to do that. He hadn't expected Lucas to be the one.

"Oh, come on! El and I are dying!" Dustin implored him.

"You sure that's what you wanna do?" Mike confirmed.

"Yeah. He's using that Orb to control the Isle of Dread the same way the curse is controlling my kingdom! I'll put an end to it!" Lucas blew on his die for luck, and threw it. Nineteen. "Aw, come on! That was so close to a crit!"

"It's still a good hit." Will glanced down at his notes and gave a bland smile to keep what he was thinking from showing on his face. "Throw for damage."

"Uh... ten, plus... Seventeen."

Will put down his pen, and looked at each of his players in turn. "The dwarf warrior's axe hits the Orb of Shadows with all his might and righteous anger. It shatters into a million pieces, and you all close your eyes to shield them from the bright flare of its explosion. 'Noooo!' the evil Sorcerer yells. 'What have you done?!' His bony features twist and wither, and he falls into a heap of bones on the floor. The sickly green light dies out from his eyes. The wicked Sorcerer of the Isle of Dread is no more! The Isle is free!"

El let her feet fall down onto the floor with a relieved _thunk_. Mike closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Dustin jumped up with a triumphant "We did it!" Lucas joined him when he repeated it a few times for good measure, and added a few "holy shit"s, too.

"Congratulations, brave heroes of the realm," Will said, digging out his final notes. His voice shook for some reason; maybe it was relief that they'd gotten to the end at last. "The grateful villagers give you their best boat, and you leave the isle behind you, knowing it's been freed from its curse. The gateway to the dark dimension has been closed. Mike, you and Dustin bring your mother the long-lost elven artefacts you found in the Sorcerer's tombs, and earn the respect and gratitude of the whole Alfheim."

"Go, half-elves," Dustin said with a pleased nod, and offered his fist to Mike for a bump.

"El, your righteous actions have earned you the friendship of a steadfast paladin, and the untold riches you gathered in the jungle. Wherever you decide to go now, your path is open and blessed before you. And Lucas..." Will smiled, and took out one of his oldest notes. "The Sorcerer of the Isle of Dread was the one who cursed your people, a thousand years ago. With his death, the curse is lifted. Your kingdom is free. You may return at any time, to receive the adoration of your subjects."

"No way," Lucas laughed, glancing around the table. "I've got a lot of adventuring to do first."

"That's the end of this adventure, though." Will very deliberately folded up the DM screen and set it aside. "Is there any pizza left?"

There was. They had barely touched it. Will took that as a compliment. He secured a large slice for himself, and flopped down onto the comfortable couch, drained of drama and adventure for a while.

The others left their chairs, too, wandering around, stretching their legs, rediscovering their snacks. The figurines were left on the board to serve as a reminder of the game they'd just finished. The pizza was cold but delicious. It was warm and cosy in the Wheeler basement.

For the first time in a long time, Will felt completely normal, completely at home.

"You _backstabbed_ an undead Megalosaurus," he heard Lucas say. "That's beyond awesome. I didn't even know you could backstab a dinosaur!"

"Oh yeah, and who said she shouldn't be allowed to play a hobbit when she hasn't even read it?"

"I, I didn't mean it like that. You should read The Hobbit, though! There's dragons and shit!"

"When you get to level ten, El, your Sneak Attack will get, like, a whole die more lethal..."

"You should buy some quality light armor, though. Drakeskin, something like that."

"Okay, okay! Stop telling her what to do!"

"Oh, like you never do that, Mike..."

Will had finished his pizza. He curled up in the corner of the couch and let his eyes fall shut, just for a second. All the excitement, all the tension had melted away from him, leaving him warm and drowsy and content. He wasn't afraid of what he'd see when he opened his eyes.

It had grown quiet when he stirred awake. He could only hear two voices speaking in low tones, Mike and El.

"And The Return of the King. Here. But you don't have to read them all at once. Just start with The Hobbit and see if you like it."

"Okay." A pause, so heavy it made silence loud. "I had fun, Mike."

"Yeah?" Mike's voice was laden with hope.

"Yeah."

"But you have to go."

"Mike."

"I get it. I do. Here, you have to keep hiding all the time. The bad people can find you here. At least in the Upside Down... It's your home. I get it."

"I'll come back. For another game."

"Yeah! Yeah, sure. Will runs a really good campaign. Not like me at all, completely different. And anyway, when he forgets a rule or something, I can remind him. It'll be even better, next time. When you come back."

"When I come back," Eleven echoed him, softly. "Promise."

Will had to yawn and make a big show of waking up at that point. He didn't want them to start sucking face or anything while he lay there pretending to be asleep; that would be a nightmare. When he blinked his eyes open he saw that they were just hugging, and didn't even seem bothered to see him.

"Hey, Byers," Mike said, blinking rapidly and doing his best to smile. "Come say goodbye to El."

Eleven had put on her coat, and the scarf Dustin had given her. It was so long that it practically wrapped her in wool like a mummy. She smiled beneath it, though. He could tell from her eyes.

"You've got your home, too," she observed.

"Yeah," Will said, slowly, savouring the thought. "That's right. I'm home now. Thanks for playing in my first campaign, El."

She opened her arms awkwardly, and Will scrambled up from the couch awkwardly, and somehow put together it made for a hug that wasn't awkward at all.

"Take care," Will said, and patted her on the back.

"You too. Take care of Mike." It sounded a little like _or else_ , although she was still smiling.

Mike put his hands in the pockets of his jeans and tried to look like he wasn't bothered. "She told Dustin and Lucas the same thing."

"Friends take care," El said gravely. "They have to."

"Sure." Will flung his arm around Mike to draw him closer. "I'll watch your paladin for you, master assassin."

El gave them one more little smile from between layers of wool, picked up her pile of books, and took a deep breath. She brought her hand up to her nose, to keep blood from seeping into her scarf, and turned to face the chilly gust of air that welcomed her. Stepping through was so easy for her. For her, the other dimension was never far away.

Will couldn't watch the gate swallow her, even knowing she'd made it for that purpose. He opened his eyes when he could no longer feel the cold nipping at his skin.

"You okay?" Mike poked at his shoulder.

"Yeah," Will said in whisper. "I'm fine."

"Want to share the last slice with me and tell me how you came up with that main villain? Because I know he wasn't in the original adventure module."

Will paused. "Wait. You mean you'd read the Isle of Dread adventure before?"

Mike's smile quirked to the side. "Of course. I read every adventure I get my hands on. But I wanted to see what you'd do with it. You left out the pirates."

"You could've won the game at any time."

"That's not why we play." Mike handed him the pizza slice for the first bite.

"No, it's not," Will agreed, and took out his notes.

**Author's Note:**

> "Monsters should be treated by the DM with almost as much care as he treats players — perhaps, sometimes, more care."  
> -Bruce Humphrey
> 
> *
> 
> As mentioned in the fic, I based the game sessions largely on the Dungeons & Dragons "The Isle of Dread" adventure module. I played fast and loose with the actual rules of the game to help with the flow. The fic still ended up dripping with tabletop gaming geekery. I make no apologies and have no regrets.
> 
> If you like a bit of soundtrack with your fic, I listened to [Thunder Roads by Darkness Falls](https://darknessfallsmusic.bandcamp.com/track/thunder-roads-2) a lot while I wrote, especially the parts taking place in the Upside Down.


End file.
